Ilford (England), Sept. 8 (Reuters): Britain said today its police would monitor a Muslim group that is planning conferences to honour the September 11 hijackers as the “Magnificent 19”.

Britain’s al Muhajiroun group plans to hold conferences in four cities to mark the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York which killed more than 3,000 people. Mainstream Muslim groups have denounced the organisation as a radical group that misrepresents the views of the country’s two million Muslims. Al Muhajiroun’s posters feature portraits of the hijackers, labelled “The Magnificent 19”, and al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden superimposed on a picture of New York’s World Trade Center in flames.

“The operation is legitimate under Sharia,” the organisation’s UK head Anjem Choudary said. “Those individuals are Muslims, they were carrying out their Islamic responsibility and duty, so in that respect they were magnificent, and the Muslims worldwide hope that they are accepted as martyrs in the eyes of God,” he said.